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Cost of Living: Mexico City Most Expensive
Brazilian cities become more expensive, Santiago costs plunge.
BY LATINVEX STAFF
Mexico City is now the most expensive city in Latin America for international assignees, according to Mercer.
Meanwhile, Chilean capital Santiago was among the top five cities worldwide seeing the largest decrease in cost of living, in part due to some reductions in the cost of high-end housing.
The ranking methodology encompassed 226 cities across five continents. It assessed the comparative costs of over 200 items in each location — from housing and transportation to food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. To ensure consistency in city-ranking comparisons, New York City was utilized as the base city and currency movements were measured against the US dollar.
Mexico City replaced Argentine capital Buenos Aires as Latin America’s most expensive after jumping 46 places on the global ranking to 33rd place. Another Mexican city, Monterrey, also became more expensive – jumping 40 place to 11th place.
Most & Least Expensive in Latin America
| LAR | GLR | Change | City |
| 1 | 33 | 46 | Mexico City |
| 2 | 36 | 27 | San Jose |
| 3 | 42 | 12 | Montevideo |
| 4 | 77 | -32 | Buenos Aires |
| 5 | 115 | 40 | Monterrey |
| 6 | 124 | 28 | Sao Paulo |
| 7 | 127 | 9 | Guatemala City |
| 8 | 150 | 21 | Rio de Janeiro |
| 9 | 151 | -3 | Panama City |
| 10 | 160 | -73 | Santiago, Chile |
| 11 | 166 | 1 | Lima, Peru |
| 12 | 167 | -7 | Santo Domingo, DR |
| 13 | 174 | 40 | Bogota, Colombia |
| 14 | 180 | -4 | San Salvador, El Salvador |
| 15 | 184 | -5 | Tegucigalpa, Honduras |
| 16 | 185 | 14 | Belo Horizonte, Brazil |
| 17 | 192 | Asuncion, Paraguay | |
| 18 | 196 | -1 | La Paz, Bolivia |
| 19 | 197 | 4 | Managua, Nicaragua |
| 20 | 217 | 8 | Havana, Cuba |
Note: LAR=Latin America rank. GLR=Global rank.
Source: Mercer’s 2024 Cost of Living Survey
Within South America, Buenos Aires now also lags Uruguayan capital Montevideo in cost of living. Montevideo jumped 12 places to 42nd worldwide, while Buenos Aires fell 32 places to 77th place.
Santiago saw a dramatic drop of 73 places and ends up in 160th place worldwide and 10th in Latin America.
Brazilian cities Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte all became more expensive. Sao Paulo now ranks 124th worldwide (up 28 places) and sixth in Latin America, while Rio ranks 150 (up 21 places) and 8th in Latin America.
Panama City and Dominican capital Santo Domingo became less expensive, ending in 9th and 12th place, respectively, in Latin America.
Cuban capital Havana is once again the least expensive in Latin America. This year it ranks among the 10 least expensive worldwide.
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